PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The city’s bike sharing program, which was shelved five years ago, is back on the table and could be implemented in Philadelphia in about a year or so.

Andrew Stober, Chief Of Staff in the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities says bike sharing is not a new concept in Philadelphia.

“In 2008 we started looking at what a bike share program might mean for Philadelphia as the first systems were launching in Europe,” says Stober. “At the time, we were, as folks will remember, going through a financial crisis and we also didn’t have the bicycle infrastructure in place we felt to support all the new additional riders.”

Stober says things have changed and the idea is back on the table for 2013.

“Bike share is becoming a fundamental part of a thriving city. Washington D.C., Boston, Denver, Montreal, Toronto, London, Paris, cities across China and around Asia, the list goes on and on, have bike share systems. For Philadelphia to be competitive, it needs a bike share system,” Stober explains.